Between Film and Art presents experimental, artist-driven cinema, this year spotlighting two singular filmmakers: Ewelina Rosińska and Vadim Kostrov. Their works move beyond autobiography, intertwining the personal with historical and ecological reflections on how film perceives and constructs reality. Rosińska’s "Ashes by Name Is Man" and "Vultures" trace a lyrical relationship between faith, landscape, and the act of seeing, while Kostrov’s "Still Free" and "Éveil" meditate on time, freedom, and exile through tender, durational observation. Together, their films reveal cinema as a living encounter — between viewer and world, past and present, form and feeling.

Screenings will be followed by Q&A with the directors Ewelina Rosińska and Vadim Kostrov.

The New Talents Competition returns for its sixth edition, showcasing debut, graduating, and second films from Eastern and Southern Europe competing for the Audience Award. This year’s eight selected films, chosen from a record number of submissions, display remarkable sensitivity, courage, and experimentation. Exploring themes of identity, body, healing, memory, and community, the filmmakers confront personal and collective histories while imagining more compassionate futures. Join us at Filmhuis Den Haag to celebrate these emerging voices — and don’t forget to cast your vote for the Audience Award!

Click here for New Talents Competition #1 and here for New Talents Competition #2.

Still Life in Motion presents two striking visual journeys. "Inventory" (Ivan Marković, Serbia, 2025) chronicles the dismantling of Belgrade’s iconic Sava Centar, once a symbol of Yugoslavia’s progressive vision, through the eyes of young reconstruction workers witnessing its decay. "Temo Re" (Anka Gujabidze, Georgia, 2025) follows a struggling actor-turned-courier across Tbilisi, capturing poverty, corruption, and haunting echoes of the past in a black-and-white photographic montage. Both films explore memory, transformation, and the collision of personal and collective histories.

Filmhuis Den Haag and Eastern Neighbours Film Festival present a program exploring Kosovar cinema, from tradition to transition. "117" (1976) documents the daily life of an Albanian family of 117 in rural Kosovo, serving as a significant historical and ethnographic portrait. "Phantom Youth" (2023) follows two young women who leave their village for the capital, only to face the harsh realities of a country on the verge of independence. Together, the films offer a compelling insight into Kosovo’s culture, history, and challenges across decades.

An uplifting stop-motion film that celebrates creativity and the healing magic of imagination. When children spend the night at their grandfather’s house, they begin inventing tales to fill the silence left by their grandmother, discovering the transformative power of storytelling. Suitable for kids 6 years and older.

In this Oscar-winning classic, celebrating its 50th anniversary, an unassuming Slovak carpenter becomes "Aryan controller" of a Jewish widow’s shop, forcing him to choose between complicity and conscience as the shadow of fascism descends.

The screening will be introduced by Sarah A. Cramsey, a historian at Leiden University and Assistant Professor of Judaism & Diaspora Studies, as well as Director of the Austria Centre Leiden.

"Where Have You Been" commemorates 30 years since the Srebrenica massacre, one of Europe’s darkest chapters in 1995. The film follows artist Aida Šehović and her nomadic memorial project, which creates spaces for remembrance and collective reflection. After traveling the world for 15 years, the monument returns to Bosnia, where survivors gather to honor the victims by filling thousands of ceramic coffee cups, exploring memory, mourning, and the ongoing questions of justice and empathy. The screening at Filmhuis Den Haag is accompanied by the exhibition Cups of Memory at KM21, where Šehović and architect Arna Mačkić continue to transform remembrance through art.